Book Image

Getting Started with React Native

Book Image

Getting Started with React Native

Overview of this book

React Native is a game-changing approach to hybrid mobile development. Web developers can leverage their existing skills to write mobile applications in JavaScript that are truly native without using cross-compilation or web views. These applications have all of the advantages of those written in Objective-C or Java, combined with the rapid development cycle that JavaScript developers are accustomed to. Web developers who want to develop native mobile applications face a high barrier to entry, because they are forced to learn platform-specific languages and frameworks. Numerous hybrid technologies have tried to simplify this process, but have failed to achieve the performance and appearance that users expect. This book will show you all the advantages of true native development that React Native has without the steep learning curve, leveraging the knowledge you already have. We do this by getting you up and running quickly with a sample application. Next, we’ll introduce you to the fundamentals of creating components and explain how React Native works under the hood. Once you have established a solid foundation, you will dive headfirst into developing a real-world application from start to finish. Along the way, we will demonstrate how to create multiple screens and navigate between them,use layout and style native UI components, and access native APIs such as local storage and geolocation. Finally, we tackle the advanced topic of Native modules, which demonstrates that there are truly no limits to what you can do with React Native.
Table of Contents (10 chapters)

Chapter 6. Working with Geolocation and Maps

So far you've seen that React Native simplifies the creation of native UI components, such as lists, text fields, and buttons, and it gives you simple abstractions, such as AsyncStorage, to work with underlying native APIs. Soon, you'll see that you also have access to advanced components, such as maps using the MapView component, and that you can access more advanced native features, such as geolocation using React Native's Geolocation API. We'll demonstrate these capabilities by adding the ability to capture and save current GPS coordinates with each new note. Note that the next two chapters will focus on iOS development, as the feature set for Android is not complete.

In this chapter we will cover the following topics:

  • Learning how to get the current geolocation
  • Listening for changes to the user's position
  • Ensuring that our app requires appropriate permissions
  • Saving location data with each note
  • Displaying the...